Praedicator

Verba

Thursday, June 18, 2009 - Thursday in the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

[2 Corinthians 11:1-11 and Matthew 6:7-15]

In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words......

A visit to a Catholic bookstore can easily bring Jesus' words, quoted above, to mind. There are shelves and shelves of books on prayer - thousands and thousands of words! Methods abound, and there are occasional e-mails that send me a "prayer that has never been known to fail!" It is a vast subject and a sensitive one. In the public worship of the Church (one of the many forms of prayer) the traditional axiom - The way we pray is the way we believe! - is always kept in mind. Every preposition, every sentence, every punctuation mark is scrutinized!
Perhaps it all does boil down to a single prayer - the one Jesus taught his disciples (and us)! However, human beings that we are, we find other ways - psalms, hymns, litanies, personal words, etc. etc. Sometimes the prayer may be a single word like HELP!!!! Other times there may be no words - just silence! If I had one piece of advice to offer in how to pray, I'd say BE YOURSELF! That will guide all the rest. Don't worry, God will listen. AMEN